DESPITE SUCCESS, PATS WILL NEVER BE MISTAKEN FOR AMERICA’S TEAM

So why isn’t America in love with the New England Patriots? By now, shouldn’t the NFL’s top performer of the New Millennium be known as America’s Team?

The Dallas Cowboys are still more popular, despite being America’s Tease more than America’s Team for as long as most high school seniors have lived.

When Americans were asked their views of nine well-known NFL franchises, the Patriots failed to crack the top five in popularity.

The Cowboys and Packers tied for first. Seventh out of nine — that’s where the Pats finished in Public Policy Polling’s national survey two months ago.

It wasn’t for lack of success. The Pats have won the most Super Bowls this century. They’ve claimed the most conference championships, too, and the most division titles.

There’s plenty of Big Media muscle behind the Patriots, as any consumer of ESPN and the NFL Network knows. (The commentary runs in a loop: Tom Brady walks on water, Bill Belichick is a genius and owner Robert Kraft is wise and beloved by all.)

Unlike the Yankees of old, the Pats aren’t accused of buying success because the NFL has a salary cap. Some teams have been nabbed for trying to circumvent it, but the sport is more a test of team-building than raw spending power.

By now, some of you are screaming: “It’s because the Patriots are cheaters.”

Certainly the Pats lost popularity points, not to mention a first-round draft pick, for videotaping the New York Jets’ defensive signals from a sideline location in 2007.

Spygate, as it came to be known, perturbed NFL watchers as far away as San Diego. Trevor Hoffman, then the Padres’ closer, said the punishment wasn’t severe enough. (Hoffman railed against cheaters in baseball, too. His wife, for what it’s worth, had been a cheerleader for the Buffalo Bills, a long-suffering Patriots rival).

Marshall Faulk also was ticked off. And still is. The former San Diego State star, contending that illegal espionage had contributed to New England’s first Super Bowl victory, against his Rams in 2002, ripped into the Pats last month.

Another athlete with San Diego roots, Stephen Neal, holds a different view on why the Pats aren’t more embraced for their success.

“It just seemed like it was us against the world, because we were good,” said Neal, a Patriots guard from 2001-10, “and that’s not a bad thing.”

My guess: Patriots fatigue has set in. Americans like new phones, new computers, new cars — why not less of New England in the playoffs?

Now comes word that Brady has signed on for three more years, extending a contract that ran through 2014.

Because of how the money was distributed and guaranteed, a shrewd move by Brady, but not the selfless act that some pundits depicted it to be, the Pats will have another $15 million in cap room over the next two years.

So, just when they were looking vulnerable, entering draft season with only five picks, the Patriots should be able to sign proven talent, some of it their own, while many teams dump players to get under the cap.

Brady has shown signs of aging, if you watch the 35-year-old closely. But he is still a great quarterback.

Given the cast of stumblebums in the AFC East, America could be looking at five more years of Brady and the Patriots in the AFC playoffs. The Patriots are a reality show that refuses to die, even as many watchers want to give them the boot.